Judicial System

North Carolina's state Supreme Court Chief Justice was sworn in yesterday.

Chief Justice Mark Martin was officially sworn in for an eight-year term in a ceremony at the North Carolina Supreme Court.

But he isn't new to the court- Martin was first elected in 1998. He was appointed to serve as Chief Justice this summer, after the former Chief Justice Sarah Parker resigned. She had reached the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Judge Mamie Dowd Walker was a widow with two children when she was appointed the first female judge in North Carolina in 1934. It was a first for North Carolina not only because Judge Walker was female, but also because she had no legal training. But her grandson Milo Pyne says his grandmother "needed the money."